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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA. 



SONGS AND BALLADS 



BY 



FANNY EAYMOND-EITTER. 



3 



1. 




NEW YORK: 
F. W. CHRISTERN, 

251 FIFTH AVENUE. 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1887, by 

Fanny Raymond Bitter, 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



TO 

MY BELOVED MOTHER 
CATHERINE ^I . K A T -AI O N D . 



COXTEXTS. 

SoxGS AXD Ballads. 

Pagre 

Gitana 11 

The Water-Sprite 14 

The Coureur de bois 15 

May's Wedding 26 

Love Beyond All 29 

St. Cecilia 31 

Wood-Rivulet 33 

Ring and Kiss 34 

Lover's Boat Song 35 

Love's Requiem 3S 

Bard of the Sunset Song 41 

The Hidden Fountain 43 

The Rose-Star 44 

Connor's Bride 46 

An April Song 47 

Dream of the Dale 51 

Infinite ^'ariety 53 

The Sweetest Story 54 

SoNXETs OX Music. 

Palestrina 59 

Beethoven 60 

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony 61 

Carl Maria von Weber 62 

Franz Schubert 63 

The Tannhaueser Overture 64 

A Remonstrance 65 

Nightingale and Crow 66 

Sonetto Quasi Fantasia 67 

Remembered Music 68 

Folk-songs 69 

Folk-Singers 70 

Evensong 71 



vi CONTENTS. 

SUMMEK-NlGHT NOCTURNES. 

Page 

Invocation TS 

In Moss and Grass VG 

Forgetmenot 'i'8 

At Twilight '9 

Under the Rose 83 

Beside the Pool 83 

Lady Lily Loves Not Love 85 

Twain 86 

In the Haunted Oak 87 

Night Echoes ■ .... 89 

Night Storm 90 

Watch Dogs 91 

Sospiro 92 

The Voice of Night 94 

Transcriptions. 

Arab War Song 99 

Arab Love Song 100 

Arab Elegy 101 

Among the Roses 103 

Louisa 105 

Allah lOG 

The Wife's Regret 108 

The Klepht 109 

The Fair Penitent 110 

Paqnita HI 

Tuscan Rosa HSi 

Roman Teresa 113 

Lament ll-l 

The Minstrel 116 

Beside the Bier IIH 

The Purest Flower 119 

Merle and Maiden 120 

Feminine Questions 121 

Harp and Sword 123 

Swiss Cowherd's Song 124 

The Challenge 126 

Thaw 128 



^ PREFATORY NOTE. 

I 

Rather less than half the songs and ballads in the accompanying 
collection have already appeared in English and American periodicals 
— and as some among these have been several times illustrated by 
composers, while to a few the compliment of translation has been 
accorded, their re-appearance hero may not prove unwelcome to their 
former readers. Others now appear in print for the first time. 

Pare of the transcriptions might be more truly termed free fan- 
tasias (in musical parlance) on fragments, broken verses, of partially 
lost folk-songs; others, to which the authors' names are appended, 
are as true to their originals as befits translations that rather aim at 
preserving the spirit than the letter. With the exception of one or 
two of which I have seen English prose versions, and the Servian 
song, which Lord Lytton had already translated, these appear, I 
believe, for the first time in our language. 

FAXlS'Y RAYMOXD=RITTER. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 



GITAXA. 

Come, set night to melody! 
Come, unclose with music's key. 
Springs of purest poesy I 
Fain (prayed he) would I forget 
Anguish past, o'ershadowing threat, 
Aspiration and regret, 

Gitana, Gitana. 

As were thine Fastrada's ring, 
Woo each spirit of the string 
With persuasive beckoning ; 
Or with moonlit thoughts imbued. 
Breathe that visionary mood 
Born of song in solitude, 

Gitana, Gitana. 

Breathe the ban, but jjour the balm! 
^latin plaint and vesper 23salm, 
Storm and roselit after-calm; 
]5ut from Joy no brightness borrow. 
Lest Joy's lonely sister, Sorrow, 
Answer every sound tomorrow, 

Gitana, Gitana. 



12 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Lull sad Sorrow in a tone 
Soft as showers on. buds neAv-blown 
Where wild doves deserted moan; 
Sigh laments, — but none more deep 
Than the sighs of babes asleep 
Smiling all the while they weep, 

Cxitana, Gitana. 

Echo Ariadne's strain 
When ungrateful love's disdain 
Woke that lay's melodious pain. 
While, enamored, ISTaxos' water 
Listening, paused, and low besought her, 
" Mourn again, oh, Minos' daughter," 

Gitana, Gitana! 

Touch the silent chord that sleeps 
In the heart's unconscious deejss 
Ere Love's hand across it sweej^s; 
Rouse that chord's enchanted closes. 
When the charm that wakes the roses. 
All its slumbering power discloses, 

Gitana, Gitana! 

Sing of spring, — but softly, lowly; 
Spring is but the melancholy 
Shade of youth's impassioned folly! 
Youth — Love — Spring — in music met, — 
Hush thine unavailing fret. 
Inexhaustible Eegret ! 

Gitana, Gitana. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 13 

Cliaiit farewells, like tliose at sea 
Sang where ha2)les.s exiles be — 
Parting's plaintive monody, — 
AV'hen the snllen daylight's dying, 
When the reef-bell tolls, replying 
To a lost wind's sobbing, sighing, 

Gitana, Gitana! 

Then, while song's retiring stress 
Dies like dreams of happiness 
Dreamed in grief-worn night's distress. 

And to silence falters, oh 

Would this jnilse so pause! That so. 
Death, Life's bondage could undo, 

Gitana, Gitana, 

And my soul from mortal bound 
Melt away like melting sound 
'Mid immensity profound, 
With the soul of melody 
In supernal harmony 
Blent for immortality, 

Gitana, Gitana! 



14 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



THE WATER-SPRITE. 

The lily is closing its chalice, 
Afloat on the brooklet's breast ; 

Deep, deep in that exquisite chalice 
A water-sprite makes her nest. 

The planet of eve is her watchlight ; 

Her curtain, the flag's blue crest ; 
The brooklet sings "Lullaby, slumber ;' 

She's rocked by the wind of the west. 

Light vapors roll over the water 
And cover her viewless rest ; 

What guest has a sweeter chamber ? 
What chamber a lovelier guest ? 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 15 



THE COUKEUR DE BOIS.* 

Early sunset, and overcast! 
Strong boughs bending, clouds scurrying past; 
Tlirouglit the skirt of the wood in the teeth of the 
blast 
Onward hastens a coureur de bois. 

Xut-brown forehead, cheek russet bright, 
Storm-black tresses, teeth snow-flake white; 
AVith a spark as of starlight through murky mid- 
night 
Flash the eyes of this coureur de bois. 

Pliant, mobile, his form and face 
Harbor force in the guise of grace; 
And the courage of more than one venturous race 
AVarms the smile of the coureur de bois. 

Dangers, many, his days beset; 
Desolation he oft has met ; 

Death has passed him close by; but pale Dread 
never yet 
Cast a shade o'er the coureur de bois. 



* Coureur de bois.— It is scarcely ■necessary to apologize for the in- 
troduction of this French title, in an English descriptive ballad, as every- 
one a little familiar witli Nortli\ve8t American and Canadian pioneer lore 
knows that the terms scout, guide, trapper, roi/ageur, etc., will not ex- 
press the calling of a coureio' de bois, who is (or was) all these, and 
more, when fully up to the requirements of his occupation. 



16 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Few his liults, his wuiulci'iiigs f;ir; 
Hunger, thirst, his familiai's are; 
His sole hoiU'tli-tire's the sun; earth his hed; some 
cold star 
Guards the slee}) of the eoureur de hois. 

Oft, for many men, life or death. 
Doubtful, hang on the truth and faith 
Word and courage and strength, eye and ear, foot 
and breath. 
Hand and heart, of a eoureur de bois! 

So 't is now. At the settlement 
He's awaited ere night be spent; 
When his promise is given, when his will's firmly 
bent, 
What can Fate, 'gainst a eoureur de bois? 

(j hostlike, under the cedars low, 
Fugitive forms and murmurs flow; 
With the heart's-blood of summer, red majile-leaves 
strow 
The wild path of the eoureur de bois. 

Startled moose steal warily by; 
I'authers shrill from a distance cry; 
In a phalanx wedge-shaped, wild geese clang as 
they fly 
Southward, over the eoureur de bois. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 17 

Gaunt, gigantic, one ancient pine, 
Outpost last of the forest line. 
Seems to beckon or mock with a meaning malign 
In the way of the coureur de bois. 

Crows flaj) over him, wind-bested; 
Whirring night-hawks wheel round his head; 
Clouds eclipse the broad disc of the moon; sudden 
shade 
Falls at once on the coureur de bois. 

Snow clouds! Gathering low and lower, 
Pall-like, drooping the opening o'er; 
From the rapids a heightened and menacing roar 
Strikes the ear of the coureur de bois. 

*'Do your utmost, cold, snow, and storm! 
Hope and memory keep me warm; 
Thoughts of Emilie, flower of the fort, hold a 
charm 
Against harm," feels the coureur de bois. 

Faintly lit by the low moonrise. 
North, west, eastward, the prairie lies 
Pathless, shrouded all o'er by the first snow that 
flies 
In the face of the coureur de bois. 

Hark, a sound to the south, this way 
Borne by the wind. " Or the wild dog's bay, 
Or the wood cat's shrill wail for her cub, or his prey 
Gone astray?" asks the coureur de bois. 



18 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Dark, to sou'west, a large blot lies. 
Up the prairie it moves, — it hies 
Ere to windward it wavering wanders, and tries 
For the track of the coureur de bois. 

Holding liis breath, he starts. " What cheer? 
Olal" With a whistle, high, steady and clear, 
And tlie stalk of a redskin, the spring of a deer. 
Onward strides the tall coureur de bois. 

''Food grown scarce on the hills? My store 
Men will need before winter's o'er. 
And your appetites keen 'twould but sharpen for 
more, 
Brothers gray,"' thinks the coureur de bois. 

What's to be done, he asks his mind; 
Craft or courage? Which best, to find 
Out of danger a way — famished fury behind. 
Storm ahead of the coureur de bois? 

"You never listened to Orpheus' lyre. 
Treacherous quadrupeds, deaf as dire, — 
Till a man 's lost his breath, keeping quite beyond 
fire!" 
Eails, perjilexed, the coureur de bois. 

*' Still, I've struggled through worse — to win. 
Death's a trite fact to an Algonquin; 
And a Frenchman can sing on doom's edge — then 
dance in," 
Laufi^hs the half-breed coureur de bois. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 19 

"Faith of my mother! Yet 't were no jest, ^ 

Young and hopeful, of love possest, 
An unchristianlike burial to give in the breast 
Of a wolf, to a coureur de bois! 

'' More than life, too, or gold's at stake, 
Emilie, for thy charming sake; 
No, my promise to meet thee this morn, I'll not 
break. 
On the soul of a coureur de bois I" 

Heavy's the burden his shoulders bear; 
Letters, messages, words of cheer; 
Orders, weapons, seeds, victuals, furs, feminine 
gear. 
Load the pack of the coureur de bois. 

"Oif with it all! What use to complain, 
When, by K"eed, white Honor lies slain? 
But, till now, from Du Lhut to Chatillon,* no 
stain 
Blurred the roll of the coureurs de bois ! " 

He bends his brow in a settled frown. 
Clutches his rifle, and gathers down 
His scarlet capote o'er his visage nut-brown. 
On, on, flies the coureur de bois. 

♦DiiLhut, Cliatillon. Well known coureurs de bois, among whom 
Du Lhut was a famous chief, about 1680. The town of Duluth in Min- 
nesota was named in honor of him. 



20 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Light as a swallow he skims the plain. 
Scores to one. Must brute win? May brain? 
The pack for a moment hangs back, then again 
Hurries after the coureur de bois. 

''Ha, there's spirit in this! Than gaze, 
Starved, half-frozen, athirst, for days 
At the wilderness' voiceless and motionless face, — 
Eather this," thinks the coureur de bois. 

''Still, by wolves a man's soon outrun; 
Brief's my resj)itel" He loads his gun, — 
Fires, — of twenty good bullets reserving but one; 
"For myself I" vows the coureur de bois. 

Hideous feast on the snowy jjlaini 
Horror and carnage I — "They snarl and strain 
For the blood of their brothers, as fiercely as men, 
On the faith of a coureur de bois I'' 

Nearer, nearer, over the heath. 
Keeking fangs and smoking breath. 
Sharpened hunger and anger, — a terrible death 
Fast approaching the coureur de bois. 

"Soon 'twill be over! Eather die 
So, than in lingering torture lie 
Till one gasps one's last, hell's fiends mocking by 
Ere their time," thinks the coureur de bois. 

"Then, what's this, to the frightful fate 
Bravely borne, — nay, with souls elate. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 21 

I\v the Titnns of wliom oft my grandani would 
prate 
To encourage lier conreur de bois? 

"Great Brebceuf, wliose marvelling foes 
Ate his heart, drank his blood I AV'^ho knows 
liut my forefathers — I Well^, 't is no coward stream 
flows 
Through the veins of the coureur de boisi 

"Jogues, Bressani, Milet!* They sung . 
Heavenly anthems while torture-wrung 
On the ice, at the stake, without lijis, without 
tongue! 
Martyrr^, hail I" The coureur de bois 

Signs his brow with the Christian's sign. — 
'^Ah! — A chancel — S*? Anne so benign, 
For this seraph-sent thought I'll give thanks at 
thy shrine. 
Like a grateful coureur de bois I'' 

Quick, he takes from his gray cajDe's fold 
His flageolet, rude, rustic, and old. 
Yet as mouthpiece not wholly unworthy the bold 
Dauntless breast of the coureur de bois. 



*Br(:b(>'>if, Jogries, Bressani, J/i/e/.—JeBuit missionaries in Uie early 
days of the European invasions of America. Milet, to whom the Iro- 
quois gave the litle of "Walking Death," was compelled to sing the 
Veni Creator to amuse his captors; Bressani sang hymns amid atrocious 
tortures; Jean de Urebceuf was a man of such extraordinary bravery 
and endurance that his wild foes partook of his flesh and blood, in 
order, as they said, to acquire something of liis grandeur. 



22 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

"•■Phew-ee-ew!'" Would he wake the dead? 
Summon tlie storm^ or au army sped ? 
That long trill is a token that strength has not fled 
The free lungs of the coureur de bois. 

"Hasten and help, my memory I 
Not with amorous melody. 
Or with carols well suited to evenings of glee 
Spent with comrade coureurs de bois, 

"But with airs trans^jorting. whose life, whose 

glow. 
Rhythm resistless, strong swing and go. 
By time's law move the foot at time's will, fast or 

slow; 
Speak, command, for a coureur de bois I" 

He turns; he faces the nearing swarm. 
Keen, clear, piercing, over the storm 
High uprises tone's magic, invisible charm. 
On the breath of the coureur de bois. — 

Music! Electric, magnetic might! 
Euler, pulse, of each ray of light. 
Or the gleam that inhabits the glance dark and 
bright 
Of the eye of the coureur de bois, — 

Sound from thine undiscovered height! — 
Will! — As once, amid chaos" night! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 23 

Wave the wand that leads worlds in enjilioiiions 
flight, 
O'er the path of the coureur de boisi 

Lend new sense to the deaf, and bind 
Brutisli rage in thy fetters kind! 
Shed tliy spell through the spirit and meaning en- 
shrined 
In the strains of the coureur de boisI — 

Hark I AYar-marches of Scot, Gael, Gaul I 
Stirring pibroch, wild mountain-call. 
And the chant that vibrates from stockade and 
from wall 
As a greeting to coureurs de bois; 

Huron halloo, the fight before; 
Iroquois" dance when the battle 's o'er; 
And the whoop that rings up through the cataract's 
roar 
As a signal to coureurs de bois; 

Time unwavering, accent bold, 
Tone in full, steady stream unrolled; — 
There "s a height and a depth still unsounded, un- 
told. 
In the soul of the coureur de bois! 

Like one wolf, to his minstrelsy 
Forward march they, and backward he; 
"That you never met Orpheus, is lucky for me," 
Thinks the hopeful coureur de bois. 



24 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

While to the time of the tune tliey sway^, 
Fast or slow, as he wills to play, 
Black night and her storm-brood creep slowly away 
From the world and the courenr de bois. 

'-'What! A halt! And wherefore?" A wail, 
Long and dissonant, rides the gale; 
''E'en a Tory's long ear at such music would 
quail," 
Pausing, thinks the courenr de bois. 

He turns. Joy fills his dauntless breast; 
"Sweet S'? Anne and the Virgin blest, 
"T is the fort! 'T is the haven of rapture and rest 
To a hard-prest courenr de bois!'' 

Welcome, the clearing's narrow bound! 
Welcome, the ancient burial mound, 
And the fire-blasted firs grouped like sentinels 
round! 
'Tis heaven's gate, to the coureur de bois! 

AVelcome, the maize-field's stubble worn! 
The sunflower patches, half uptorn ! 
And the cot where sweet Emilie sleeps this cold 
morn. 
Dreaming dreams of her coureur de bois! 

Welcome, welcome, the woodfire clear. 
Hearty hand-clasp, and warm cup's cheer. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 25 

And the kiss swiftly stolen from his heart's darling 
dear, 
As she Hies to her coureur de IjoisI 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

''Friends! I've always given, you know. 
Bullet for bite, for a scratch, a blow; 
But today I can't look on a wolf as a foe; 
Hunt without one coureur de bois. 

"Trackless waters I've sailed upon; 
Broken pathways where path was none: 
Yet of all my adventures, one strange as this one 
Ne'er was told by coureur de bois. 

"Good as it stands, 'tis not too long; 
Then 'twere pity to spoil a song; 
Moral, epilogue, tag, are bad taste, nor belong 
To the style of a coureur de bois. 

"AVhere stood Virtue, where Vice, friends, say? 
Wolves are fated to starve or slay; 
But we men? — Retribution might hit far astray, 
dieted out by a coureur de bois. 

"]\Ian's a bad judge of Sir Wolf, I fear; 
I knew not that he owned an ear 
Twenty times better far than a single man here 
Boasts, — except, — one coureur de l)oisI 

"And, in some Happy Hunting Spot 
'T were awkward to greet — I 'd rather not 
Meet the soul of a wolf I had piped to — then shot! 
Go without vour coureur de bois!"' 



26 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



MAY'S WEDDING. 

Cftvo-Patt Song.) 

Blooming Spring has come to woo 
Dainty darling — "March!" — That shrew? 
Bankrupt AVinter's oldest child. 
Harsh, aggressive, shrill- voiced, wild? — 
"Then, by verdurous field and wood! 
'T is young April's maidenhood ! 
Leaping blood and lyric mood ! 
Discord beckoning concord good!" — 
Hoyden April? Pout and i3et. 
Baby tears and madcap fret. 
Peach no bee has ever stung, 
Song that 's written, — but unsung, — 
Nymph who knows that rosebuds yearn. 
Yet who will not swear, — "I burn!" 
Spring addressed her, one warm day. 
But that hour was stolen from — May! 

Singing sister, join, with me, 
Nature^s bridal harmony! 
Dovelike, lovelike, sweet and sweet, 
O'er and o'er the song repeat; 
Echo o'er and o'er again 
Ehythmic word and rapturous strain 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 27 

Till tlie blazing sun grows cold. 
Sky-set Venus blind, gray, old! 
May and Spring and Spring and May, 
Hail their halcyon wedding day! 

Where a dawnlit garden glows. 
Laughs a rich, resplendent rose; 
Youth ^s that Cytherean bower; 
Joy^s that amaranthine flower; 
On the rose within the grove 
Broods the bird of heaven, — sweet Love, 
Pulse of every vital stream. 
Heart of every noble dream, 
Mighty Love whose magic lay 
Charms opposing Fate away. 
There a million leaves, aswing. 
Light as emerald joybells ring; 
There each floating wind's a flute. 
There each lulling wave 's a lute, 
There, to aid the ecstatic choir, 
Giant pinetrees sweep the lyre; 
Nightingales in chorus chaunt 
Round a fane, and o'er a font 
Mountains bow like priests to bless. 
Melting snows the witnesses. 
Northern lights the torches hold, 
Suns the ring of virgin gold. 
Moons the silver crown will proffer. 
Stars the marriage garland offer; 
Ocean, fired with inward flames 



28 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Since he heard these lovers' names. 
Will a diamond carj^et spread 
Which from land to land they '11 tread 
AA'hile mankind exultantly 
Swells the dazzling pageantry! 

Singing sister, join with me 
Nature's bridal harmony ! 
Dovelike, lovelike, sweet and sweet. 
O'er and o'er the song repeat; 
Echo o'er and o'er again 
Rhythmic word and rapturous strain 
Till the blazing sun grows cold. 
Sky-set Venus blind, gray, old! 
May and Spring and Spring and May, 
Hail their halcyon wedding day ! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 29 



LOVE BEYOND ALL. 

I reigned on a cliff illumed by sunrise; 

Now, o'er a crag night-clouded and pale 
Curst Doom has struck me down from the mountain 

And set me deep in the darkened vale I 

My diadem crushed, my kingdom conquered. 
My war steed captured, my light lance cleft. 

Of fame and freedom and friend and father. 
Fell Fate remorseless has me bereft. 

Rosebud of morning! Starbeam of midnight! 

Sancha! — Why art thou Christian, girl? 
Thy lips are red as flowers of Granada, 

Thy teeth are whiter than Indian pearl! 

Black as the mane of my steed Al-Morrah, 
Thy long locks over thy shoulders roll; 

Close as this dungeon, moon of Xarama, 
That shining net imprisons my soul ! 

I 'd give my life for my ancient glory. 

Treasures and armies, kingdom and crown; 

I'd give my crown for my steed Al-Morrah, 
And one sharp dagger to call my own; 



30 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

I 'd give my steed and my sliarp, strong dagger, 
Father and friend to embrace once more; 

And friend and father, to hear thee, Sancha, 
Cry "Love!" as I pass thee, toward death's dark 
door! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 31 



ST. CECILIA. 

Down Time's long night thy life's pathetic story- 
Streams pale and clear as moonlight's mellow glory. 
Fair pearl encrusted in a missal quaint, 
Sweet maid or sweeter saint 
Cecilia ! 

While, singing, thou didst wander ways secluded, — 
And jasmines whiter grew, and violets brooded 
On earth's unblighted bloom when Eve was blest 
'Mid Eden's vanished rest, — 
Cecilia, 

With rose-crown shading eyes, as angel's holy. 
How lovelier far thy pensive melancholy 
Than Raphael, Titian, Dolci dreamed of thee 
In artist ecstacy, 

Cecilia ! 

If sudden sunlight stormy dawn surprises, 
From dewy bowers song-shaken odor rises ; 
So rose thy heart's rich incense, prayer and song. 
When Christian faith was young, 
Cecilia ! 



33 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

The force occult iu heavenly music folden, 
The love that may to martyr deeds embolden, 
Insjiired thy gentle being, and made thee 
Embodied melody, 

Cecilia ! 

But didst thou live indeed, or wert thou only 
Some poet-priest's ideal, pure and holy? 
Nay, I will keep belief in thee serene, 
For saints like thee have been, 
Cecilia ! 

O'er legend-haunted tomb, one lily slender 
Sheds radiance soft as new-risen spirit's splendor 
So doth thy dulcet memory illume 
The cloister's antique gloom, 
Cecilia ! 



SOXGS AND BALLADS. 33 



WOOD-EIVULET. 

Wood-rivulet wildly flowing, 

I bend o'er thy crystal tide 
When, swift to a far goal going, 

Thy luminous waters glide 
In melody clear and simple, 

In harmony pure and free. 
With sun-polished cheek, adimple 

As winter had ne'er touched thee! 

This way comes a sad wind's sighing; 

Across the horizon's bound 
An ominous cloud-bank 's lying, — 

A sorrow that breathes no sound; 
Thy lilt not a fear confesses ! 

Thy dance tosses dole behind; 
Thy face in its play expresses 

No shade, or of sky, or mind. 

Yet art thou, sweet brook, dissembling? 

Up, up, from that breast of thine, 
A deeper emotion, trembling. 

Responds to the voice of mine I 
Wood-rivulet wildly fleeting. 

Some grief at thy heart must sob. 
Else why should my pulses, beating 

In time to thy jnilses, throb? 



34 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



EING AND KISS. 

{Two- Part Song.) 

Flower of the fountain, 

Bud half blown. 

Give me a kiss ere the sun goes down I 

Wind of the mountain. 

Wooer bold, 

Give me a ring from your shrine of gold! 

A chest and a gem-set key 

Guard that shrine, — on my hunter's back; 
That key's with my huntsman; he, — 

Alas and alack! 

Is afar, at the chase on the mountain! 

A rose and a pearl-set key 

Guard the kiss that between them lies; 

That key's with my mother; she, — 
As your huntsman wise. 
Is afar, at the fair by the fountain! 



SONGS AND BAH.ADS. 35 



LOVEE'S BOAT SONG. 

Come hither, earth's dearest daughter, 

With exquisite motion's flow, — 
The musical sway of water 

When south winds over it blow, — 
Come hither, asleep June's lying, 

Stars, roses, on brow and breast. 
In heaven not a cloudlet's flying, 

On earth every leaf's at rest; 
Come hither, night's noon is burning; 

Away from the world, to me 
Come hither, where tides are turning 

Toward lands that resemble thee! 

Two isles in a realm dream-haunted. 

Two islands that should be one. 
Encircled by airs enchanted. 

Await thee, my spirit's sun! 
No longer their cloud-caught sighing 

Floats o'er them like unshed rain. 
Lone island to isle replying 

''I thirst in the midst of the main!" 
From island to isle I've builded 

A bridge for thy foot to tread; 
By stars as they fell 't was gilded. 

By jasmine, earth's star, 'tis spread; 



36 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

There maiden magnolias glister 

Like moons amid emerald gloom. 
There eglantine-rose, thy sister. 

Dreams dreams of thy pale pink bloom; 
There delicate hyacinth voices 

O'er violet murmnrs rise, 
As when thy soft laugh rejoices 

In pause of thy low replies. 

Our barque waits at Morning's portal 

On waves that exhaustless rise 
From fountains of youth immortal 

And rivers of Paradise; 
Desire and Impatience man it, 

My heart is our anchor true. 
Our polestar 's a twinborn planet, — 

Those sapphires thy soul looks through! 
Of moonbeams our sails are woven, 

Of sunbeams I've shaped each spar. 
Our mast 's from the lightning cloven, 

Our lamp is the morning star, 
A ])ennant of lute-strings golden 

I "ve twined; by Delight, sweet elf, 
Our diamonded helm is holden; 

Our cajitain's Great Love himself I 

Though menacing S2)rites unholy. 

Around us may rage and rave, 
Though mermaidcns melancholy 

8ia"h under the ruffled wave. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 537 

Thougli foambells, o'er breakers dashing, 

Like hands of the drowning rise, 
Thougli sparkles from wave-crest flashing 

Look up like exjjiring eyes. 
Though imps of destruction hover 

Beside us with baleful breath, — 
The faith of a fearless lover 

Disarms the angel of death! 

Then come where mirage Elysian 

Transfigures the charmed ground 
Where wanders poetic vision, 

Where magical tones resound. 
Where every wild bird 's repeating 

Some song he hath learned from thine. 
Where music's warm heart is beating 

With throbs such as swell through mine. 
There, Fancy our fate enfolding 

As in some invisible star. 
Illusion our lives withholding 

From worldly regard afar. 
At Hope's fairest shrine we '11 offer 

My truth and thy purity. 
And Love the bright gift we proffer 

Will guard through eternity! 



38 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



LOVERS EEQITIEM. 

{Two- Part Song.) 

Farewell weal and farewell woe, 

Night is falling, Love lies low ; 

Love, celestial sprite, lias si^ecl 

Like a vision vanished. 

Low, low, lullaby ; 

Didst thou dream that Love could die ?— 

'' Sister, no ; but Love would so ; 

" Sing Love's requiem, let Love go ! 

" Love had wings from head to heel ; 

"Windlike wandered Love's light will ; 

" On the wave Love built his nest ; 

"Love with sand bound breast to breast. 

"Low, low, lullaby; 

"Like a lost dream let Love die ; 

" Calm thy woe ; it must be so ; 

" Sing Love's requiem, let Love go." 

Can a maid unloving go. 

Though Love's joy be drowned in woe ? 

Loveless life, — oh, living death, 

Eose without the rose's breath ! 

Low, low, lullaby ; 

Who would live if Love must die ? 

" Slow and slow, and rave not so ; 

"Sing Love's requiem, let Love go !'* 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 39 

Perish, life, if Love's undone ; 

Love, creation's glowing sun ! 

''Nay, nay ; like dew in May. 

" Eeason melts in Love's least ray." 

Low, low, lullaby ; 

Must sweet Love in blossom die ? 

" Curb wild fancy's fervid flow ; 

" Sing Love's requiem, let Love go ! 

''Line Love's shrine with rosebuds red 

" (Blushes faded, kisses fled) ; 

"Wreathe Love's shroud with rosebuds white 

" (Bloom woe-worn by Love's despite) ; 

"Low, low, lullaby; 

"On Love's bier let cypress lie ; 

" Bitter tears for dew bestow ; 

" Sing Love's requiem, let Love go ! 

"Trace Love's name delusively 

"With a moonbeam on the sea ; 

"In the belladonna's shade 

"Be Love's burning memory laid ; 

" Low, low, lullaby ; 

" Ring Love's knell and let Love die ; 

" Say farewell ; Fate wills it so ; 

"Sing Love's requiem, let Love go ! 

" Shun that shade as thou woulds't flee 
"Poison-breathing upas tree ; 
"Passion's arrows threaten there, 
"Stings of anguish, fangs of desi>air ! 



40 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

" Low, low, lullaby ; 
"Wile and guile, there let them lie ; 
" Ileart's-delight, forget thy foe ; 
'SSing Love's requiem, let Love go !" 

If Love 's lost, then lost is all ! 
Wind the world in frozen pall, 
Down gray chaos let it roll 
Waste, a world's condemned soul ; 
Low, low, lullaby ; 

Light, light's source, extinguished lie ; 
Death and darkness life o'erthrow; 
Sing Love's requiem, let Love go ! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 41 



BARD OF THE SUNSET SONG. 

Tall oakS;, liglit elms gray-green. 

Dark linden leaves o'erlean; 

There, — druid of the trees 

And sylvan mysteries, — 

One lone, prophetic thrush 

Stirs eve's impassioned hush 
With hymeneal chaunts of night and day. 

With mellow anthems that to dusk belong. 
Sing o'er and o'er again thy golden lay. 

Sweet soul of twilight, bard of the sunset song! 

His mate's brown nest looks west; 

On guard above her rest 

He gazes at the sun; 

And when June's day is done. 

Far over darkening bowers 

That garnered light he showers 
In glowing marriage-hymns of night and day. 

In mellow anthems that to dusk belong; 
Sing o'er and o'er again thy golden lay. 

Sweet soul of twilight, bard of the sunset song! 



43 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



THE HIDDEN FOUNTAIN. 

Beneath ii mountain crevice a fountain lay concealed 

In all its crystal beauty, for ages unrevealed. 

With line and lead and beaker men sought to reach 
and sound 

The fountain's secret, vainly; that source no seeker 
found; 

Unreached, untouched, untasted, flowed on the 
virgin wave. 

And ne'er to wearied wanderer its sweet refresh- 
ment gave. 

Till, one ambrosial morning, a man at soul a child. 

Beloved of heaven, — a poet, — leaned o'er that fis- 
sure wild. 

He struck his silver har^Dstrings with fingers soft 
and strong, 

His heart, too full for silence, leaped to his lips in 
song 

Lamenting ill — so wrongly, so dimly understood! — 

And then, all joy, exulting in ample after good; 

That song was warm and human; harmonious, 
since 'twas so; 

It scaled the heights of being, and soothed, in 
love, the low; 

Alive, afire, impassioned with great imaginings. 

From time and space divided, it rose on sovereign 
wings. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 43 

Melodious power resistless, through iron nerve and 

vein 
Like light, heat, motion, stealing, dissolved each 

ancient chain; 
A throb, a fluttering murmur! In sympathetic 

play 
That fountain's jjulse re-echoed the spirit of the 

lay. 
And higher and fuller rising, cool, lucent, liberal, 

sweet. 
Its wealth of hoarded waters flowed out at the 

singer's feet! 



44 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



THE EOSE-STAR. 

One star of wide lieaven grew weary; clown fath- 
omless deeps of bine 
He sank in a rosebnd's bosom, transformed to a 

drop of dew, 
And dwelt amid balm and beanty, dissolving in 

rich repose, 
While aspiration supernal disturbed the heart of 

the rose. 
Wild, winglike, her leaflets waving, she strove 

from her stem to rise, 
And sought for a voice, to utter the meaning of 

silent sighs; 
Consumed by anguish and rapture, her loveliness 

lapsed away; 
One fragrant, fluttering heartburst! In ruin and 

death she lay. 
Her sorrowing sister roses rained tears on the 

green parterre; 
One angel lily, gold haloed, leaned o'er her in 

breathless prayer. 

Through twilight's tremulous glamour and dusky 

dream-bloom, afar 
There burns on the veiled horizon the torch of 

that errant star; 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 45 

With fire so profound, impassioned, not lambent 

Orion glows; — 
'T is fed by thy radiant spirit ! It echoes thy soul, 

sweet rose! 



I 



46 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



CONNOE'S BRIDE. 

Down moonlit woods went Connor's bride, 
Where jasmine stars like snowflakes shone; 

Where down the vale one nightingale 

Poured, wave on wave, wild tone on tone. 

"'Why roam the valley, Connor's bride, 
To chide the sun ere stars be gone, 
To cherish bale ere grief assail. 
To harvest sorrow yet unsown? 

"Thou followest phantoms, Connor's bride; 
Go hence, where Hope awaits her own! 
Go, morning hail I O'er larks j^revail! 

Go, wreathe Love's rose ere summer's flown! 

"Nay, like loves like,'' sighed Connor's bride; 
"Sad nightingale desj^air has known; 
Sweet jasmine frail is passion-|)ale; 

With her I pine, with him make moan!" 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 47 



AN APEIL SONG. 

The first share severs tlie first brown clod, 
Tlie first scent floats from tlie first moist sod, 
The first bhide waves in tlie first kind breeze, 
The first sap drips from tlie first live trees, 
The first weed sways on the first smooth billow. 
The first down falls from the first bright willow. 
The first brook melts from the mist-hnng mountain. 
The first spray leaps from the noon-kissed fountain, 
Tlie first fly drones in the first warm hour. 
The first bee hums round the first pale flower. 
The first frog pipes in the first mild eves. 
The first dove coos in the first green leaves. 
The first seed-wing from the aspen flutters. 
The first spring-idyl the bluebird utters. 
The first light step on the soft turf 's springing. 
The first clear song at the casement 's ringing. 
The first full pulses of Nature's heart 
Through April's virginal bosom start ! 

Get ye behind me, shades of the tomb! 
Nor mock false Fancy from coigns of gloom 
With eyes in doubt and despair long dead, 
Aglare with frost of wild tears unshed! 
Avaunt ! In greening grave-moss I see 
The pledge of mine immortality! 



48 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Avaunt! It dawns on the night, the light 

That every fen-fire will j)ut to flight ! 

Haste onward, herald of nobler days! 

Peal upward, prelude of purer lays! 

Melt, chains! Glow, ice! Shine, darkness! Rejoice, 

Long folded pinions, long silent voice! 

While April's radiant rainbow car 

Rolls on victorious across our star, 

Auroral meteors southward turn. 

Transfigured glaciers like lovers burn; 

With Dionysian stress and strain 

Song chases song through the minstrel's brain; 

By violet memories of youth beguiled. 

The old man weeps like an April child; 

"0 heV AjjyiU ! " Italian maids 

Sing o'er and o'er in the myrtle glades. 

And weave rose garlands and dance and sing 

While Easter bells in the chapel swing; 

But when wild nightingale wakes his strain 

Of love's capricious delight and pain. 

Red lips turn paler in sunset glow, 

And murmur, "Can he my secret know?" 

With Hebe-step to the woodland hies 

The blue-eyed girl under northern skies. 

And when she bends where a pink- white nun 

Dreams on of snow through a prayer for sun, 

She asks arbutus, '' Can this be love 

That thrills my being, and fills the grove?" 

For blushes break o'er the saj^i^hire sky. 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 49 

Each beam is a kiss, each breeze a sigh; 
Tlie wing of a wandering fairy tale 
Wafts marriage-music down every gale; 
The south has wedded the yielding north! 
The sprites of flowers to the feast fly forth ! 
The temple portals half open stand! 
The altar glory crowns sea and land! 

Celestial presage of new-born truth 

Hail, Primavera! Immortal youth! 

Hail, April, sibylline vestal-witch, 

Fulfilment's prophetess iiromise-rich ! 

Hail, Psyche- April ! "Without a fear 

Advance, and raising thy cresset clear, 

Behold where beautiful Eros waits 

That signal lamp at the summer gates! 

Hail, Iris- April, who wound for me 

The call, that, piercing eternity, 

AVith silvery clangor my soul-sleep broke 

And I to life's resonant phasma woke 

By Avon water and Arden wood. 

Those tones vibrating through all my blood! 

Sing hail, chaste morn's ethereal bloom! 
Sing hail, bold eve's tumultuous gloom! 
Sing hail, broad field's instantaneous flush! 
Sing hail, swift rain's irresistible rush ! 
Siiig hail, fresh flood's precipitate flow! 
Sing hail, vast azure's Olympian glow ! 
Sing hail, deep paean of pure delight! 



50 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Sing hail^ sure sign of ineffable might ! 
When earth, like her own transfigured sprite. 
Whirls dancing, singing, through seas of light 
As now shone the dawn of creation's sun, 
And long-sjDun cycles were yet to run, — 
When life leaps forward to welcome spring 
And greet the future, — whate'er it may bring,- 
I revel in rapture without alloy, 
For I feel that I worshij) while I enjoy! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 51 



DEEAM OF THE DALE. 

'Mid stormy clouds the moon awoke; 
Her smile the spell of darkness broke, 
And now from azure deep and clear 
She silvers wood and field and mere. 

Hope of the vale! 

Pure and pale 

Muse of the dale! 

Kind moonbeam, kiss the mountain peak 
Where she at parting would not sjjeak; 
Where he from mossy sod uptore 
The wild flowers she had wandered o'er; 

Bliss of the vale! 

Pure and pale 

Bloom of the dale! 

One sailed to seek the setting sun; 

To meet the coming morn went one; 

Ten thousand miles apart, afar! 

Yet thou canst find them both, sweet star. 

Light of the vale! 

Pure and pale 

Lamp of the dale! 



52 SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Salute her distant window jiane! 
Illume his path across the main! 
And hast thou found them, planet fair? 
Two truer hearts thou 'It find nowhere. 

Saint of the vale! 

Pure and pale 

Dream of the dale! 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 53 



INFINITE VAEIETY. 

{Two-Part Song.) 

On Monday I^'m a sensitive, retiring, shy, and 
tender; 

On Tnesday niglit a jessamine, all passionate pale 
splendor; 

On Wednesday like an almond flower in dazzling 
bloom and lustre; 

On Thursday, darkly, softly sweet, a modest violet 
cluster; 

On Friday bland and fresh as dew-pearled lilies of 
the water; 

On Saturday a moss-veiled rose's youngest, love- 
liest daughter; — 

''But when, on Sunday morn, while bells are 
chiming, organs quiring, 

I hear that thrilling voice, and meet those glances 
love-ins2:)iring, 

I dream thee then a day-born star, dawn's bright- 
est emanation. 

The pulse, the music of the air, the heart of God's 
creation. 

And know thee fairer far than star, flower, spirit 
superhu man, — 

The salt of strife, the crown of life, a bliss-be- 
stowins: woman!" 



54 SONGS AND BALLADS. 



THE SWEETEST STORY. 

Beiieath a viue-bower bloom-laden 
There gossipped two comrades old 

Where mused a lily-cheeked maiden, 
Brown-eyed, with ringlets of gold. 

" When midsummer time's returning 
In uniform green and blue, 
I feel my old wounds fresh burning; 
Were fighting again to do!" 

" When birds on the trees are singing, 
And lambs in the pasture stray, 
My crutch to the deuce outflinging. 
Fain would I like them go play ! " 

Close trellised vine branches darkled; 

But opaline evening dew 
On clustering vine leaves sparkled; 

Attentive, the moon looked through. 

With treacherous shudder and shiver, — 
Awake when the owl, even, slept, — 

The false wind betrayed to the river 

Some trusts which he ought to have kept; 

The river, 'mid reeds, amid rushes, 

Ran frauo-ht with that murmurous rune; 



SONGS AND BALLADS. 55 

The reeds, in low whispers and hushes, 
To air gave each secret of June, — 

The hist, choicest scandal, of rose's 
Duellos, with thorns to be fought; 

The fact that when morn^'s eye uncloses, 
A bee in the linden-bud's caught; 

Carnation's mishap, — and no wonder, — 
She laced her green bodice so tight. 

Miss Pink said it must break asunder; 
Hush, jasmines have ears, in the night! 

" Eelate, of all these, the best story; 

Who told it? Wind, water, leaf, reed? 
Old comrades regretting war's glory? 
Pink, chiding Carnation's misdeed?" 

Ask the moon. W^ith love's eloquence laden. 
To her was the sweetest tale told 

In the smile of the lily-cheeked maiden, 
Brown-eyed, with ringlets of gold! 



SONNETS ON MUSIC 

(Chiefly Irregular). 



PALESTEINA. 

White iu tlie pure ideaFs purest glow, 
Beside primeval fouuts of harmony. 
That fane, oh Palestrina, built by thee. 
Stands far remote from stormy floods below; 
Transparent waves of clearest eui^hony 
In benediction through its cloisters flow; 
About its firm foundations come and go 
Soft echoes of seraphic ecstasy; — 
Come, enter, wounded spirit, weary heart! 
Here all is peace ineffable, benign! 
Here bloom the mystic lilies that impart 
Celestial balm to bleeding souls like thine; 
Here sjirings the source of uncorrupted Art! 
Here Faith's unblemished rays forever shine! 



60 SONNETS ON MUSIC. 



BEETHOVEJS". 

Thou Alp of toners high range ! To that vain sonl 
Who hopes to exalt himself while lauding thee, 
With hollow phrase, affected mystery. 
Translating thine oracular thunder-roll, 
Thy wonder-world will nothing more unfold 
Than wastes where warring winds blow every way, 
Perplexing paths that lead his steps astray. 
And crags that blind him with their scornful cold. 
But he who seeks in faith thy lofty fane. 
Walks with the mountain spirit's majesty; 
For him dark clefts their hidden flowers contain; 
While o'er some peak sublime, he, blest, may see. 
Beyond the verge of this low sensual plain 
Outspread, the splendours of infinity. 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 61 



BEETHOVEN'S SEVENTH SYMPHONY. 

A flood of color and luxuriant line, 

A radiant torrent of vitality, 

A dance of the age of gold, a revelry 

Of Titans, goddesses; a masque divine I 

Upswings the flowering thyrse, while swift they flee 

And meet, pursue and 2)art, dissolve, entwine, 

In living chains of beauty strong and fine. 

In plenitude of being, jubilant, free! 

Along harmonious waves of cosmic motion 

Float, splendid dancers! Chant, ecstatic chorus. 

Creation's Joy, as chanted stars before us; 

And sing what prayer but whispers; — that emotion 

Which makes us one with yonder j^lanets o'er us, 

One with eternity's unfathomed ocean! 



62 SONNETS ON MUSIC. 



CARL MAEIA VON WEBEE. 

Thou Oberon, lord of wonderliorn and wand! 
Tiion ProsperO;, from thought's isle-solitude 
Encircling earth with music^s Ariel-mood! 
Thou Merlin of the mind's Broceliande, 
The magic of thy bardic staff's command 
With golden tone has every breath imbued 
That floats o'er knightly field or demon wood. 
Or gypsy heath or mermaid-haunted strand! 
As cruel Viveliane to captive doom 
Allured the enchanter through his own wild siDell,. 
To death thy muse drew thee; as, ages long, 
His voice pealed forth, j^rophetic, from that tomb. 
So sounds, so shall sound, thine; an oracle 
Foretelling destinies yet unknown to Song! 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 63 



FEANZ SCHUBEET. 

In deep melodious trance thy life did flow 

As flows some vast and visionary stream 

Along the haunted margin of a dream 

Enthralling, rich in rapture, wild with woe! 

"Whate'er across that flood of power supreme 

Might float, with loveliness it could endow; 

With glamour of its own intrinsic glow, 

"With fervid poesy's impassioned gleam; 

And in its mirror shadows moved, that are 

And are not; virgin Love; young Hope, more 

bright 
Than on the front of night the first fair star; 
Lost memories; shipwrecked orbs of vanished 

light; 
While o^er the immense tone-breathing solitude 
One sovereign spirit did forever brood. 



64 SONNETS ON MUSIC. 



THE TANNHAUESER OVERTUEE. 

Imagination traced this bold design; 
From deej^ emotion flowed chromatic bloom, 
Rich as some orient amnlet's perfume^ 
O'er its strange web's elusive woof and line. 
'T was woven in that domain of infinite tone, 
Where storms unborn sleep on 'neath planets dim, 
Suns drowned in dark mirage, lost moons that swim 
Through seas magnetic. There, 'mid wastes un- 
known, 
Strong souls wave errant pinions that impede 
Their path in passion's tranced atmosjihere — 
Slow-stirred by phantom sighs, and thrills of fear, — 
Past streams of light to hideous gulfs that lead. 
In hojje to reach some high impossible fate. 
Supernal Beauty. Horror, Love, or Hate! 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 65 



A EEMONSTEANCE. 

Though Liszt's rhaijsodic dream of wandering' 

sound. 
And Chopin's fervid eloquence I jjraise, — 
Though I adore the pure, poetic lays 
In which Mozart's fine nature language found, — 
Though Handel, voicing pastoral Hebrew days. 
Awakes my soul to aspiration strong, — 
Italian suns transmuted into song 
Shall I disdain, nor meet to these, just jDraise? 
Not so! Dove's monotone is richly sweet. 
Though nightingales entone such Protean lays; 
Myrtle, bay, violet, are not incomplete. 
Though roses bloom, flower-queens, through myriad 

Mays; 
Oh, let me, loving loftiest music more. 
Love what is lowlier none the less therefore! 



66 SOKNETS ON MUSIC. 



NIGHTINGALE AND CROW. 

{An Italian Apologve.) 

Tlarongli fragrant star and mooulit Tuscan bowers 
Sad niglitingale's impassioned ecstasy 
Poured dulcet tones whose liquid melody 
Fell soft as dew from dreaming valley-flowers; 
Song's rapture, love-inspired, the grove did fill 
With heavenly harmony, divine delight; 
One low-voiced fountain like the heart of night 
Throbbed far away; all other sound was still. 
Harsh-throated crow then dared disturb that song 
With arrogant croak — "What fine concent we 

make ! " 
One hiss — one rush — the scornful woodland throng 
Slew strident crow for nightingale's sweet sake. 
Ah, w^ere some owls of ours as wise! But no; 
They stab the nightingale — and crown the crow. 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 67 



SONETTO QLTASI FANTASIA. 

There lloats a phantom Fancy, vision bright, 
In that abyss where caj^tive Passions sleep; 
Siglis, burning siglis exhaling from that deep. 
Enthrall the sense, enshroud tlie soul in night. 
Wake, music! Pierce, with resonance like light. 
The vaporous glamour! Swell, harmonious surge! 
Drown discord! AVaft from that precipitate verge 
Tormented thought on wings of seraph might 
Through realms more pure, and through serener air 
Above eclipse and nightmare-turmoil dire, — 
Faint-lit by conscience' pallid beacon-fire! — 
Beyond the possible, beyond the known. 
To thine enchanted paradise of tone, 
Where life is love; and love, transfigured prayer. 



68 SONNETS ON MUSIC. 



EEMEMBERED MUSIC. 

If e'er the wanderer finds in some dim grot 

Safe sheltered from June sun, a violet 

Like dark-stoled novice in calm cloister set,, 

That shade becomes for him a charmed spot 

Where May in early beauty blooms anew, — 

As mirage-fairy fresh o'er desert plain 

In tropic heat arising; — born again 

Of one small flower's sweet breath and modest hue. 

So he who hears in age some gentle strain 

Long, long unheard, but yet remenibered well, 

Feels youthful love, hope, life, his heart and brain 

Renew, and through his wearied pulses swell. 

And, half forgot Time's deeper, riper lore, 

He roams in song through springs that are no more. 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 69 



FOLK-SONGS. 

Sun-fringed showers tliat drift Avith silvery feet 
Down gold-green valleys ou a summer day; 
Delicious wafts from new-mown meadow hay 
Afloat o'er lawns where every flower is sweet; 
Spring brooks that leap and wind and laugh and 

play 
Beside a river's large, slow, measured swell; 
Clear chime from high church tower, of crystal bell 
That strikes through organ-tones while suppliants 

pray; 
Stars softly throbbing round the full-orbed moon; 
Pellucid 2)earls, encircling jewels rare 
As violets stud rose garlands, yet seem fair; 
Thrush melody, though with the lark ^tis June; — 
Such these wild songs, pure, fresh, spontaneous, 

free, 
Heard amid more majestic minstrelsy. 



70 SONNETS ON MUSIC. 



FOLK-SINGEES. 

AYliat far and fairy fount tliese singers taught 
The songs tliey sang so warmly and so well? 
Whence flowed the healthy power, the vital spell 
From which their glowing jjurity they caught? — 
They followed but tlie simple clues that lead 
From Man's to Nature's heart. Their pulse was 

stirred 
By love of her; they talked with her, gave heed 
To those fine truths she speaks in song of bird, 
In ring of metal, drop of leaf, or gush 
Of fountain from the rock, or ocean's flow. 
Or sigh of grass, or stormy hurricane rush; 
And in some passionate hour, their joy, their woe 
They uttered in her universal tongue, 
Unconscious as herself, while thus they sung. 



SONNETS ON MUSIC. 71 



EVENSONG. 

"When clouds in clear-obscure half veil the moon; 

AVlien dews fall, — her pure tears, — when her 
sweet breath 
The night breeze, like some tranquil Sabbath tune. 

The jDassionate heart to peace attempereth; 
When earth presages yet unspoken things 

Amid the rustling of her grassy hair; 
When tender fingers touch the trembling strings. 

And soothing song breathes calm beyond com- 
pare; 
Ah, then toners sorcery its best charm reveals, 

Its holiest deeps of rapture, love, and woe 
Immortal, mortal I Then the spirit feels 

Eternity and Time united flow. 
And earth a bright and blest and beauteous star. 

From God's invisible presence not afar! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



INVOCATION. 

Float, moon, athwart the faery dell; ■ 

Cloudmantled, pause o'er dreamland dim. 
And ere in sleep lulled senses swim, 

Enchain them with thine elfin spell; 

Waft hither, vassal-wind of night. 

From realms where syren-tones accost. 
Some captive song, ere song hath lost 

Sweet stress of lingering heart 's-delight; 

Then, — moon-born, dream-won melody! — 
Enwreathe, enchant, enthrall the brain! 
Haunt, hold it evermore again, — 

A wild enigma, void of key! 



76. SUMMER -NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



IN MOSS AND GRASS. 

(Crickets Chirp) 

Cymbals, kiss, kiss, 

Timbrels, hiss, hiss! 

Chirp, merry crickets, 

Thread grassy thickets, 
Eattling, 2:>rattliiig, cheerily and shrill. 
Skip and trip and flip and whirr and chirr and 
trill! 

Comrades, tnne, 

Tnne yonr little reeds! 

Soon, too soon 

Sunny summer speeds! 

Sweetheart pretty. 

Arch and witty. 
Neat and trim as a dew-besi^angled pink, 
Thy dainty finger in mine come link! 
Dance with me the moss-mountain over. 
Under the forest of fern and clover. 
G-randfather grasshopper dozes in the grass, 

Tijjsy with noonlight. 

Sore bested; 

Mock him by moonlight. 

Giddy old head! 
All about, beside, before, and over him pass! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 77 

Wheeling in a round 
With a gleesome sound. 
Dizzily springing, 
Ceaselessly singing, 
Skipjjiug, tripping. 
Wind a whirring trill. 
Rattling, prattling 
Cheerily and shrill! 
Timbrels, hiss, hiss! 
Cymbals, kiss, kiss! 



78 SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



FORGETMENOT. 

O'er slumber's sea go wing tliy flight, 
Sweet wind of night. 

And when thou fannest one sleeping barque. 
Through balmy dark 
Breathe wildly shy as Love's first sigh, 
" I am a sigh! Forgetmenot! " 

But murmur not 

Of sighs unknown 

That woke thine own. 

O'er slumber's sea fall shadow light, 
Fresh dew of night. 
And where dim paths of silence stream 
Through waves of dream, 
Ring softly clear as Love's first tear, 
" I am a tear! Forgetmenot! " 

But whisjjer not 

Of tears unknown 

That woke thine own. 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



AT TWILIGHT. 

{Fireflies Dance) 

Asijire, children of fire I 

Gathering gloom 

Scatter^ consume I 
Shine, beacons divine, 

Symbols of love, 

Radiant love I 
Glimmering glints of perished blisses, 
Shimmering sparks of vanished kisses, 
Sprinkle, down immensity's dazzling darks. 
Twinkles of innumerable planet-sparks! 
Through emerald grass 
In gold rain pass, 
With sapphire lustre 
On roseleaves cluster. 
Where fern-fronds darkle. 
Amethystine sparkle I 

Beware, beware 

The spider's lair! 

From the honeysuckle horn 

And the flowering thorn 

He swings his snare; 

Ever on the watch 

Sweet prey to catch, 



80 SUMMER -NIGHT NOCTURNES. 

He will entrajJ ns 

In nets, and enlaj) us 

In chains, to illume 

His den's dank gloom. 

Eather die 

In the lamjD that burns 

On the turret high 

Where my lady yearns 

Her love to discover 

To her lingering lover; 

Or serve as a light 

To the beast-l^lack sprite 

AVho delves in the deejis 

AVhere the diamond sleeps! 
Fly from the fitful heats that glow 

At the rotten heart of the mouldering tree; 
A subtle serpent lurks below, 
A greedy owl waits stealthily I 

Away, away 
From the mad marsh ray 
That dances over the mist-hung ground 

'Mid solitude profound 
Of stagnant j^ools in the haunted hollow! 

Away! Nor follow 

False lights. 

Lost sjjrites, 
Fires of the fury of irrevocable crime, 
Down in the darkness of a fierce, forgotten time. 
Aspire, children of fire! 

Gathering sfloom 



SUMMER-NIGTIT NOCTURNES. 81 

Scatter, consume I 
Sliiue. sj-mbols divine. 
Beacons of love, 
Radiant love! 



82 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



UNDER THE ROSE. 

'T was breathed at night, at dusk midnight, 

'No traitor near, unseen to hear. 

Yet ocean eclioes inurmur low 

That song of night, mysterious night. 

The moon shone bright that warm midnight. 

The wind awoke and softly spoke; 

Afar its echo thrilled the star 

On loveless lieight alone that night. 

In shy affright her silver sprite 
From sky to sea sped radiantly 
And bore along the watery floor 
In streams of light that voice of night. 

And now at night, at warm midnight 
The enamoured sea unweariedly 
Again repeats that siren strain 
Of love's delight in mystic night. 

Why, starry sprite, wind, sea, moonlight, 
The charm betray, whose secret lay 
Unsealed beneath the rose, concealed 
From day's des2)ite in shades of night? 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 83 



BESIDE THE POOL. 

{Fror/s Croak) 

Slumberous, cool, 

Langourous. full, 
Billowy breast of the bronze-brown pool! 

Dive down, smoothly splash! 

Under water dash I 

Drum, drum! Bubble, bubble! 
Love, come away! Leave torrid trouble! 
Over the wet weed slip and climb! 
Cushioned deep with yielding slime, 

A darksome bed 

For us is laid. 

Water sedge 

Its trailing jDillow, 
Curtained close by a weeping willow. 
Sweeping over the pooFs green edge; 
Drowsily circling water weaves 
Flags, weeds, grass, leaves. 
In streaming banners; oh come! Slip under 
The langourous shade of the bronze-brown pool. 

Tranquil, cool. 

Beautiful ! 
Slide, sink! Love, look up! 
By the lily cup 



84 SUMMER-XIGHT NOCTURNES. 

Our drij^ping curtain parts asunder; 
Skies of Avater sway slow o'erhead; 

The crescent moon 

And starbeams slied 

A softened light, 

And the low winds croon 

An amorous tune 

To the sultry night. 

Drum, drum! Bubble and bubble! 
Love, come away! Leave torrid trouble! 

Dive down! Smoothly splash! 

Under water dashi 

Slumberous, cool, 

Langourous, full. 
Billowy breast of the bronze-brown j^ool! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 85 



LADY LILY LOVES NOT LOVE. 

As they lingered heavy-hearted 
In tlie garden, snowy white, 
Starlike, moonlike, rose the lily. 
Lovely lily, lonely lily, 
Lady lily loves not Love ! 
Where two hapless lovers rove. 
Passionate sighs are breathed by night ! 

There, to meet no more, they parted. 
Ere the merciless morning light. 
Starlike, moonlike, set the lily. 
Lovely lily, lonely lily. 
Lady lily loves not Love ! 
Where two hapless lovers rove. 
Passionate tears are wept by night ! 



8G SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



TWAIN. 

Tlie opening rose in the lake is reflected. 
The star in the breast of the moonlit bay, 

But clearer, closer, nearer reflected, — 
Spirit in cloudless spirit, — were they! 

The wind-strewn rose from the lake is parted, 
The star from the breast of the storm-lashed bay. 

But farther, wider, longer parted, — 
Sjiirit from darkened spirit, — are they! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 87 



m THE HAUNTED OAK. 

( The Owl Hoots) 

Oo-eel Lordly 'tiS;, an owl to be, 
Castled in a hollow oaken tree! 
Twit! What speechless joy, to muse alone 
AVhen the noisy light of day has flown I 
Still and soothing "t is, unseen to gaze 
Down the dusky wood's mysterious haze, 
Calm and safe, of quiet nothing thinking, 
Slowly through the gathering shadow blinking, 
AVhile the rising mist fantastically 
Undulates adown the invisible valley I 
Wlien upon the watch I 'm warily sitting. 
Hungry bats abroad are blindly flitting — 
Twilight things, not wholly beasts, not fowls, 
Winged, affected creatures, would-be owls. 
Giddy, flippant thieves that stupidly follow 
Air-fields, empty swept by greedy swallow I 
Shrewder I wait patiently, till mouse, 
Snake, rat, lizard, steal too near my house. 
Or till clumsy toad from liis hiding-hole 
Hops heavily past my gajiing oak-tree bole. 
While freakish frog beside the weed-fringed pool 
Croaks hoarsely forth his fat cry, festal-fnll! 
Hool What spectral tragedies by night 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



Entertain mine owlish second-sight! 

Crazy wiklfire wins elf -maid to dance; 

Gnome mocks by, with sneering grin and glance; 

Gibbering ghosts of joys extinguished, groan, 

Wraiths of griefs to come flit by and moan; 

Though I hear and see, they move not me, — 

Yet men say my song means prophecy! 

But when midnight's stroke disturbs my niche. 

Then she comes, the soft-tongued, liglit-foot witch. 

Like moonlight looking whitely in at me 

With mop and mow and smile half grief, half glee! 

Well she knows this dell of rankest foison. 

Best beloved of herbs that heal or poison ! 

Well she knows me too; — oh, eyes of wonder, 

Bright and dark as clouds that flash and thunder. 

Through mine eyes attract my sense, my will, 

AVith your glance forebodings deep instil. 

Give me gleams of fate intoxicating, 

Fraught with influence human, fascinating! 

But, she passes. — Then once more I feel 

Owlish rest and safety o'er me steal; 

Then I prowl and pounce and watch by turns 

Till the noisy light of day returns; 

Oo-ee! Lordly 'tis, an owl to be, 

Castled in a hollow oaken tree! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 89 



MGHT ECHOES. 

Planet of passion, star of j)ain. 
Sunken to rise no more affain, 
"What of tliy phantom rays remain? 

Passion and j^aiu. 

Elowret of rue and wan regret, 
Bloom sorrow- wasted, blush tear- wet, 
What has love's tempest spared thee yet? 
Eue and regret. 

Shade of a shade, dream of a dream, 
Wilt thou return with morning's beam, 
Then to be all thou didst but seem? 

Shade of a dream! 

Hope unfulfilled, perished desire. 
Purified rise from martyr pyre. 
Else drown in Lethe's flood thy fire! 
Hopeless desire! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



NIGHT STORM. 

Night, born amid tempest and fear-haunted shade. 
Like passion misguided, for sorrow thou 'rt made! 
While rising winds threaten and sultry clouds 

lower. 
In terror aiid rapture I yield to thy power! 
I see bright Arcturus, engulphed, slowly sink 
Down distance elusive beyond the wood's brink; 
No torch on the water, no lamp on the land, 
The black vault is cloven by lightning's red brand. 
Wan, shuddering water, wild heart, near or far 
Through storm and through darkness there shines 

not one star, — 
Oh, were this dread darkness oblivion profound! 
Were yonder the ocean no jDlummet can sound! 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 91 



WATCH-DOGS. 

What face is that, so still, so pale? 

It stares upon me from the sky 

And speaks no word; more dumb than I, 

With looks that more than wo]-ds bewail. 

It stares until the night goes by. 

How, how, how, how, how, how, how, why? 

It wears the look my lady wore 

When silent on her bed she lay; 

They bore her from the house away 

Nor brought her back; since then, no more 

My master cares to hunt or play. 

AYhy, why, why, why, why, why, why, hey? 

All 's safe and still in house, on ground. 

But no! The sly cat mews; ss-tt-; so! 

All honest watch-dogs hate thee; go! 

AVhat'sthat? My shade? The ghostly hound? 

The wind? The distant oxen's low? 

AVhat, who? What, who? What, who? AYhatwoe? 

8ome foot, slow, stealthy, soft, I hear; 

It treads as 'twould no dog should mark; 

I scent a foe across the dark; 

Some danger to this house draws near; 

Wake, comrades! Leo! Neptune! Hark! 

Now, now! Ho, ho! Bay, bay! Bark, bark! 



92 SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



SOSPIRO. 

K.Two-Part Song.) 

''Were I this hour 

The wind of night I 
Wert thou the flower 

On yonder height I" 
Or could I be 

Yon moon I AVert thou 
The surging sea 

She silvers now I 
"Or could we burn 

Where altar-fires 
In sacred urn 

One faith insjiires, 
And rise illumed 

And glorified, 
Or spent, consumed. 

Sink side by side I " 
Or dwell afar 

Together, blest. 
Twin star by star 

In azure rest I 
''Had Fate allowed 

One land, one shrine. 
One roof, one shroud, 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 93 

As thine and mine! 
Bnt Fate to me 

Gave path and doom 
Apart from thee 

At hearth, in tomb ! " 
Vain toils Love wronght! 

For thy best deed 
And iny best thonght 

One light may lead, 
Bnt life nor death 

That change can send, 
AVill mix onr breath, 

Onr ashes blend! 



94 SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 



THE VOICE OF NIGHT. 

Whence flows tliat strange ^Eolian swell 

Through silent night? 
From mournful meads of asj^hoclel 

Or fields of light? 
From choir of rising stars, or wail 

Of planet spent? 
From coming dawn, or from the pale 

Passed moon's lament? 
From souls in sudden anguish sped 

To fate forlorn? 
From homeless souls to earth long dead? 

From souls unborn? 
O'er graves forgot that sound has swept; 

Through parting knells; 
O'er tears, the last that eyes have wept 

For last farewells; 
Across the sea of dream it flows. 

Where lovers meet 
To lose all sense of parted woes 

In union sweet; 
Long siglis of soft voluptuous bliss, 

AVild passion's sob, 
The victim's groan, the assassin's hiss, 

Within it throb; 



SUMMER-NIGHT NOCTURNES. 95 

Tlie COO of doves, the breiith of flutes. 

The mother's prayer, 
The thrill of leaves, the pulse of lutes. 

All vibrate there! 
That fateful, solitary strain 

I only hear 
When stars grow dim and moonbeams wane. 

And morn is near; 
On, ever on it rolls, it steals. 

Like flood or fire; 
No mortal song such depth reveals. 

No mortal lyre, — 
An awful, vast, eternal breath, 

Memnonian, lone; 
A voice of life, a voice of death, 

A wondrous tone! 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



ARAB WAR SONG. 



Man's life with joy Love cannot endow! 
A wilder transport his pulse would know! 
To songs of battle my heart-strings vibrate! 
'Tis then, a sand-storm, I swooj) on the foe! 

They drone no moan of pitiful woe; 
Flame, frenzy, rage, those clangors bestow; 
Through riot and rapture of slaughter, elate. 
An eager leopard, I rush on the foe! 

Sand stings, thirst tortures, angry wounds glow; 
To joust with lightning a thousand go; 
'Mid war's red roar rings the trumpet of Fate; 
Fate's just right hand, I shatter the foe! 



100 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



ARAB LOVE SONG. 

I roam through saudy, burning wildernesses; 
She rests beneath the Talha's leafy tresses. 

Sharp tliistles wound my feet, that, wearied, dally; 
She wanders down the violet-scented valley. 

I hear the Jackal's scream, the djinn's shrill hooting; 
She lists the nightingale's melodious fluting. 

Oh, would her tent dog, barking, run to meet me I 
Oh, would her ring dove, cooing, fly to greet me! 

I sigh for thee, Zuleika, Kanab's daughter, 
As pants the wounded hart for running water! 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 101 



ARAB ELEGY. 

Idle, man's rapture and anguish! Idle, man's 
labor and rest! 

80011 in the tent of death he lies, a never depart- 
ing guest. 

Where is the spouse whom once I deemed of 
honri's immortal race, 

Eeya, black-haired and sapphire-eyed, Reya of the 
flower-bright face? 

Eyes, in whose light all eyes looked dim as phan- 
toms of hopeless woes. 

Lips, the nest of the nightingale, where slept the 
breath of the rose. 

Smile, whose spell could swell one moment to 
aeons of joy untold. 

Voice, that rang, a crystal bell, to the beat of a 
heart of gold, — 

Peri -like beauty! — Yet 'twas but the veil, the mi- 
rage-like blind 

That shielded from gaze unworthy, high spirit, 
warm heart, great mind; 

But ah! I knew her, adored her! I basked in her 
myriad ray, — 

Say not she died long years ago! She dies, to my 
heart, each day. 



102 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 

What is left of the light that once transfigured 

this world's wide gloom? 
A'^lock of hair in my breast; a handful of dust in 

her tomb. 

Vain, man's rajiture and anguish! Vain, man's 

labor and rest! 
Soon in the tent of death he lies,^a never deiJart- 

ing guest. 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 103 



AMONG THE EOSES. 



Messages of heavenly wonder 
Are not always sent in tlinnder! 
Yonder hedge of dazzling roses 
Burns as once the bush of Moses, 
And in color's dumb completeness, 
In aroma's silent sweetness^ 
• To the deaf recites the story 
Of the Eternal's power and glory! 

II. 

My serious friend, advancing. 

Brings the tablet of Moses; 
Through their dew-veils glancing, 

Shyly smile the roses. 
Shouts he, — "Hither, jailer! 

Come and split their noses ! " 
Who to jail would trail ere 

One of these red roses? 
Friend, your wit must wander, 

If you 'd harm the roses. 
'MVanton dreams they jjonder! 

Sin their blush discloses!" 
Of this spice-wort, drink, friend, 



104 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 

Two or three strong doses. 
That your brain may think, friend, 

Thonghts as true as rose's! 
Moonliglit's chastened splendor, 

Opal's gleam discloses 
Purity less tender 

Than the dreams of roses! 

III. 

Sweet zephyr, sent from Eden, 

Soft sighing, breaks my light repose; 
'''Not from thy spirit, Hafis, 

That fount of song celestial flows! 
Ere time and space were measured. 

Ere earth from nothing's night arose, 
Each magic verse was treasured 

Within the heart of Eden's rose!" 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 105 



LOUISA. 

Sweet sultana of all lieai-ts, 

Laughing, lovely Frank! Louisa! 

Source of ceaseless cares and smarts! 
Captivating young Louisa! 

Fiery spears the heart imj^ale 

Of each fated youth who sees her; 

Yet may never envious veil 
Hide the face of fair Louisa! 

Joy in Islam I liave lost; 

I can think l)ut how to please her, 
By a heretic passion tost 

For the Christian girl, Louisa! 

Though, my soul, this love should bear 
Thee where tortures burn and freeze, ah 

Wouldst thou count that price unfair, 
Couldst thou thereby gain Louisa? 

illmi.) 



106 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



ALLAH. 

I am the mote in the sunbeam, and I am the Sultan 
sun ; 

*^Rest !'' I whisper the atom; I motion the orb, 
" Shine on !" 

I am the bhislies of morning, and I am the evening- 
breeze ; 

I am the leaf's low murmur, the roar of the furious 
seas. 

I am the net, the fowler, the bird and its terrified 
cry; 

Mirror, light, form and reflection ; sound, echo 
and silence, I ! 

Battle, spear, victory, warrior, his mother's des- 
jmiring tear ; 

Lover and passionate pleading, young maid and 
her maiden fear. 

I am intoxication, thirst, winejjress, lees, water- 
skin, wine ; 

Guest, host, oasis, tavern, halt, small goblet of 
crystal fine; 

1 am the click of the cymbal, and I am the mind 
of man ; 

Desert, air ; diamond, dust ; storm ; gold ; sea- 
pearls and their lustre wan ; 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 107 

Flint, fire ; tlie flame of the taper, the motli that 

about it flies ; 
Moonliglit, the rose, the iiiglitingale, the songs 

from his throat that rise. 
I am botli good and evil, the deed, and the doer's 

intent. 
Victim and sinner, temjjtation, crime, pardon and 

punishment ; 
I am the chain of existence, creation, its rise and 

fall. 
Life, death, what was, is, will be ; beginning and 

end of all ! 

(Jelal-itddin-Rumi.) 



108 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



THE AVIFE'S EEGEET. 

I go like one wlio wanders dreaming 
Through shades where falsehood's truth, truth 
seeming. 

Your love was shallow, deep was mine 
When first we shared the bridal wine; 
Your lip scarce touched that sparkling sj^ray. 
Your passion fled like foam away, 
But I the exhaustless cup still drain. 
Where bitter lees alone remain ! 

I go like one who wanders dreaming 
Through shades where falsehood's truth, truth 
seeming. 

{Chinese "Woman's Song.''') 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 109 



THE KLEPHT. 

On liigh Olympus, — summit dread I — 

His heavy pinions folding, 

An eagle rests, a liuman head 

In ruthless talons holding. 

lie gazes on the wrinkled brow 

And neck, glaive-hewn and gory. 

And screams " AVhen with thy body thou 

AVert one, what was thy story?" — 

''Feed, eagle, on my brains' sharp strength, 

My manhood crushed, consume then! 

Thy wings, thy claws, in breadth and length 

AVill double growth assume then I 

Well knew Xeromeros my name, 

Armatole, and Luros; 

Twelve years a klepht of cruel fame, 

Wme eyrie great Olympus. 

I slaughtered sixty Agas old. 

Their hamlets burned and plundered, 

Turks, Albanese, in scores untold, 

I soul from body sundered. 

Let so much of my tale suffice; 

Thy hunger now unchaining, 

Eat! Not unworthy is thy prize, 

Winged klepht, unconquered reigning!" 

{Modern- Greek Robber- Ballad.) 



110 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



THE FAIK PENITENT. 

There's a hermitage m Seville, olden shrine of 

San Simon, 
AVhither lovely ladies wander to the morning 

orison. 
Thither, too, goes Doiia Jnana, of senoras fairest 

fair. 
Donning silken robe and veil, and black mantilla 

fine and rare. 
Eound her eyes' too dazzling aznre antimony's 

shade she throws, 
O'er her cheek of creamy velvet spreads a fragrant 

dust of rose. 
Takes a dainty, sweet pastille, her red pomegran- 
ate lips between. 
Then — a rising sun, an Easter star — the church 

she enters in. 
But the clergy who should celebrate, no word can 

find to say, 
And the acolytes attending, give responses all 

astray. 
While they stare and lose their heads and blush 

and stammer more and more. 
Till instead of ''Amen, amen!" they entone, 

''Amor, amor!" 

{Old Spanish Song.) 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. Ill 



PAQUITA. 

Thou hast wondrous eyes, Paquital They have 

wiled my heart away, 
AVitchiug eyes, dark as starless niglit, 
Dazzling eyes, bright as splendid light, 
Sweet eyes! I shall die for those eyes, by all the 

saints. I say I 
For they thrill me to the soul Avhen they turn on 

me their ray. 
Cruel eyes, dark as purple night. 
Tender eyes, bright as golden light, 
I shall die for those eyes, by all the saints, I say! 

Close thy lovely eyes, Paquita! Turn thy liquid 

looks aAvay; 
Lustrous eyes, dark as deep midnight. 
Laughing e3^es, bright as noonday light. 
Sweet eyes! Lest I die for those eyes, by all the 

saints, I pray! 
For their spell no power resists; with a careless 

glance they slay, 
Fatal eyes, dark as moonless night. 
Heavenly eyes, bright as blessed light, — 
Lest I die for those eyes, by all the saints, I pray! 



112 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



TUSCAN EOSA. 

Thy velvet clieeks are soft as the rose, 

Thine eyes are clear as dew ou the rose. 

Thy finger-tips are buds of the rose, 

Thy braided locks are stems of the rose. 

Thy breath is sweet as scent of the rose. 

Thy speech is fine as thorns of the rose. 

Thy thoughts are pure as tints of the rose. 

Thy pride's the vest of the shy moss-rose. 

Thy voice, tlie sigh of the wind-stirred rose, 

Thy heart's more warm than heart of the rose; 

They christened thee well, dear, who named thee 

Eose, 
No name but queen rose's befits thee, Eose. 
But wert thou, indeed, named after the rose. 
Or is it from thee tliat we name the rose? 
For when did a rose in May bloom disclose 
Triumphant perfection like thine, my Eose? 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 113 



ROMAN TERESA. 

On thy birth morn, in heaven above 

The serajihs sang 
For joy, to know that with thee, Love 

New-born upsprang; 
Dawn, dew, and rose and rainbow, bloom 

Bestowed on thee. 
Ascension lilies their perfume 

And purity; 
But once before were locks like thine 

Admired by men, — 
The tresses golden fair and fine 

Of Magdalen. 
So rich art thou in worth and truth. 

That much he gains 
Who knows and loves thee, though the youth 

Unloved remains; 
But he whom thou shalt love, oh flower 

Of Paradise, 
Will taste the bliss of heaven's best hour 

Before he dies! 



114 TRANSCRIPTIONS . 



LAMENT 

FOE THE DECLINE OF CHIYALKY. 

star of valor, virtue, truth, 
Has all thy glory died away? 

. Has prudence queuclied the fire of youth, 
And dimmed thy ray? 

1 scarce had thought a thousand years 

Could bring to knighthood such disgrace; 
Bright honor's flame no longer cheers; 
Pale grows joy's face. 

No more I care to hear or sing 

Of deeds long past, of suns long set; 

My silent harp no more I string; — 
Could I forget! 

Shame, knights degraded, grown so vile. 
Your own reproach you cannot see! 

Shame, recreant ladies, who can smile 
On infamy! 

Shame, cavaliers, with crime-stained hands 
Who dare to face your mothers, wives! 

Base thieves of cattle, gold, and lands, 
And poor men's lives! 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 115 

Shame, each unworthy court, that deigns 
To greet with favor frivolous song 

AMiere once resounded nobler strains, 
Proud, lofty, strong! 

Shame, troubadours degenerate, shame! 

You, false to hig]\ and manly vow. 
Who once defended woman's mxme, 

Eevile it now! 

'Tis man's own fault, some judges prove; 

The fault of women, others say. 
All are to blame! Faith in j^ure love 

Has died away. 

Else, poets, wake your slumbering lyres, 

Exalt these spirits, sunk so low! 
Eise, Love! Eelight thy sacred fires, 

Thy heavenly glow! 

Guii'aud de Bornelh {Troubadour, Pivvence, 12th century.) 



116 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



THE MIJs'STREL. 



AVliat man can make so fine a lay 

As mine? For I'm Colin Muset! 

Fair maids who hear me, sj^ring np, dancing; 

Glad youths, respondent, join the round; 

Old dame and shepherd stand spellbound, 

Let spindle drop, and sheej) go j^rancing 

Enchanted by the charming sound 

Of pipe and lute, sweet song enhancing; 

No man can wake so fine a lay 

As mine, — for I'm Colin Muset I 

When led by luck where joy in place is, 
The maifre-dltotel of proud chateau 
Each portion doubles, wine lets flow, — 
So welcome Master Colin's face is! 
My lord in rich robe stalks aglow, 
]V[y lady dons her finest laces; 
I make a stir wheree'er I stray, 
For I'm the gay Colin Muset! 

The count requests a song of glory, — 
Some lay of Roland bold and brave; 
Of Lancelot's love, Ginevra's grave, 
The countess fair implores a story; 
The chant that Orpheus' soul did save 
Delights the chaplain deaf and hoary; 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 117 

For o;i('h and all I know a lay, 
For I'm the gay Colin Muset! 

All's feast poetic, princely leisure; 
Each clay some rich reward I gain; 
Yet no man thinks to weigh my strain 
Of heavenly song 'gainst mortal treasure. 
And Colin's voice, and Colin's brain, 
AVliat minstrel with his own dare measure? 
And Avho like me can wake the lay? 
Xot one! For I'm Colin Muset I 

The brazen trumpet boldly blowing, 
I sweep the harp's persuasive string, 
.Salute the flute like winds in spring. 
The riolar with soul endowing; 
A light cariUon I can ring; 
All seci'ets of my science knowing. 
How many a minstrel owes, today. 
His skill to gay Colin Muset I 

E'en when the royal feasts are over. 
Good fortune still my fate attends. 
And with me singing, homeward wends, 
No more from mine own hearth a rover. 
Then wife and children, servants, friends, 
Eejoice with me like bees in clover. 
"God bless thy liberal art," they say, 
"Brave, generous, gay Colin Muset; 
Xo man can make so fine a lay 
As thine, divine Colin Muset!" 

Colin Muset (A French minstrel of the 13tli century, and ancestor of the 
poet Alfred de Mnsset). 



118 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



BESIDE THE BIER. 

Sweet face of beauty pale and rare, 

I thought thou couldst not look more fair! 

Sweet maid whom I did so adore, 

I thought I could not love thee more! 

But now with breaking heart I see 

How fairer far thy face could be. 

And feel, while o'er thy bier I bow, 

I never loved indeed, till now ! 

( Galician Song.) 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 119 



THE PUREST FLOWER. 

{Two-Part Song.) 

Maid, thine atmosphere discloses 
Fragrance rich as new-blown rose's! 
Dost thou cherish in thy bosom 
Pink, narcissus, orange-blossom? 
Yiolet breath didst thou inherit ! 

Youth, mine atmosphere discloses 
Breath more precious far than rose's; 
Though but one ungathered blossom 
Sighs in fragrance from my bosom, — 
'T is a pure, unsullied spirit I 



(Servian Song.) 



120 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



MEKLE AND MAIDEN. 

On a beeclien tree, 
Singing merrily, 
Sways a merle, in the snusliine glancing, 
Sweet to liear and see! 

Cease, wild merle, to sing- 
Fly, on rapid wing. 
Where, across her lattice-jiane dancing, 
AVillow branches swing! 

Percli and nestle there. 
Preen thy feathers fair, 
Warble wildly nntil a maiden 
Looks out unaware! 

Many a plume-like curl 
Crowns that bird-voiced girl; 
Oft for her wings I look, fear-laden; 
Hast thou seen them, merle? 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 121 



FEMININE QUESTIONS. 



' Ah, why, my silken hair, 

So richly flow thy tresses fine and fair, 

If not in their ringlets wreaths and gems to bear? 

t Ah, why, my slender feet. 

So proudly arched, so strong and light and fleet. 
If not in the dance a bounding rhythm to beat? 

Ah, why, my sparkling eye. 

With morning sun and midnight shadow vie, 

If not on another magnet power to try? 

Ah, why, my busy hand. 

So pink thy palm, thy touch so light and bland. 

If not through one life to wind joy's gay garland? 

Ah, why, my rounded arm, 
I So satin smooth, so lithe, so rosy warm. 

If not in one fate to weave Fate's chief est charm? 

Ah, why, my thrilling voice. 

So tender, so impassioned, at thy choice, 

If not with thy tones to bid one soul, "rejoice! ^^ 



122 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 

Ah, why, my happy sj^rite. 

So fountain-fresh thy fancies wild and bright. 

If not his delight to wake with thy delight? 

Ah, why, my heart, thy glow 

Of purest fire beneath a veil of snow. 

If not for one love to burn through bliss and woe? 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 123 



HARP AND SWORD. 

In the shade of the vast cathedral two glorious 

tombs arise; 
Royal Othniar in one reposes; in one, bard Egbert 

lies. 

From his throne, as a warrior-monarch, the pow- 
erful king looked down; 

The form, on his tombstone carven, wears, hero- 
wise, sword and crown. 

By the tomb of his friend and chieftain, the min- 
strel in sculptured rest 

Reclines, with the harp tliat he cherished, close 
prest to his marble breast. 

Though rage and ruin of battle may roll through 

the stricken land, — 
Ilis falchion, stone-still, unswerving, bides cold in 

the king's cold hand. 

But when anthems of jjeace, thanks giving, float 

gladly the wind along. 
The echoing harp of the singer responds to each 



joyous song! 



{Old German Song.) 



134 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



iSWLSS COWHERD'8 SONG. 

Hale as hale can be. 

Manly, honest, free, 
Is the cowherd's ancient calling! 

Who than we more gay. 

When delightful May 
Every heart with joy's enthralling? 
When our blood like sa^j's ups2Dringing, 
When the early birds are singing. 

When the snows are gone. 

When the year rolls on, 
When the sun new verdure's bringing! 

Friend, the cowherd's stand. 

Here in Switzerland 
Is not counted least or lowest; 

On the earth around, — 

Barren, stony ground! — 
If thou serious thought bestowest. 
Thou wilt find no ploughshare through it 
Smoothly goes; no floods renew it; 

Herds for this atone. 

And on herds, each one 
Labor spends, and none e^er rue it. 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 125 

So, when skies shine clear. 

When green leaves apj)ear, 
When wild flowers laugh in the fountains, 

Steel triangles ring, 

Alp-horns echoing 
Down the vale and up the niountains; 
Touched in soft, harmonious measure. 
All men hear those sounds with jileasure; 

Doors and windows wide 

Ope, — ^t is then the tide 
When work's welcome, welcome's leisure! 

Weary, lonely hours, 

Oft must both be ours. 
Yet, on mountain height all charms us! 

When at noonday laid 

In a leafy shade. 
When, at evening, sunset warms us, 
Every peak rose-golden gloweth. 
Every brook in music floweth. 

While our kine, at ease, 

Snuft' the fragrant breeze. 
Sweeter rest, what toil bestoweth! 



126 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



THE CHALLENGE. 

{Two- Part Song.) 

I am the chasm whose hidden ground 

Timorous hunter shall never sound. 

Youth, darest thou measure its deejss profound? 

'^ Maiden, the sj^ring rains, descending, sweep 
Interspace, fissure, and channel steep. 
I will awaken that echoing dee]3 ! " 

I am a poniard, I dazzle or smite; 

I am a serjjent, as sage as slight; 

I am the teeth of the tojnnost height! 

"Eeint that can jjarry the dagger blow. 
Wisdom that baffles the snake I know. 
Paths round the ujDjiermost jieak may go!" 

Over pine summits my branches bend! 
Hope not thine arrogant way to wend 
AYliither no chamois yet dared ascend. 

"I am the silvery flakes that rest 
Wrapt in the folds of the snow cloud's breast; 
I will repose on thy lofty crest ! " 



TRANSCRIPTIONS. 127 

I am the motionless mountain mere, 
Century-fettered by frost-chains drear; 
Think not to breatlie in mine atmosphere! 

"■I am tlie beams of the burning- sun. 
Warming to life all I shine upon; 
I will enkindle that heart of stone!" 

(iate of tlie garden of Paradise, 
Haughty as Khaiber, my heart defies 
Open approach or astute surprise. 

''Love, dauntless daughter of rock and snow. 
Love, lord of heaven, can the power bestow 
Hearts proud as Khaiber to win, fair foe!" 

{Afghan Song.) 



128 TRANSCRIPTIONS. 



THAW. 

The ice breaks up, the rivers rise, 
Along the shore free Moskva flies 
His pent up rage outpouring. 
Roaring, loud roaring'! 

Heaven, in this mad, temjiestuous liour, 
CUirb Moskva's wild, destructive power! 
Restrain the flood, strong swirling. 
Whirling, wide whirling! 

Let not tlie hungry waters gnaw 
And down to merciless darkness draw 
Yon churchyard by the river, 
Ever, forever! 

There, long, long years ago, they laid 
The best, the fairest village maid. — 
When, heart, will cease thine aching. 
Breaking, slow breaking? 

( The Russian monk InnokenliJ.) 



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